I’m not the first to wonder if our quest for knowledge is getting us anywhere. For centuries, as a specie, we’ve scrambled around the universe trying to get to know it and, as a consequence, discover ourselves. The result of our accumulated knowledge has been to raise more questio
With all the animosity toward the United State in various parts of the world, I wonder if we might be sending the wrong ambassadors. If I were responsible for dealing with our critics, I’d start by reading the February issue of Fortune magazine. It teaches us better ways to conquer
Having spent the earlier part of my life as a teacher, I admit that I and, I suspect, teachers like me, are leery of each new theory intended to save public education. What makes good schools? The answer is simple. Good teachers. The other piece of the puzzle is good parenting. Studen
An acquaintance of mine recently published her first book. She’s going through the marketing phase, promoting her novel in bookstores and doing a talk show when she can. As one who has used these methods, I doubt she will generate enough sales to make Amazon take notice and certainl
Allan Sloan, as I’ve mentioned, is one of my favorite financial columnists. He’s funny, he’s clear and he majors in common sense. His latest column in Fortune reminds investors of the three rules they should follow to avoid losing great sums of money in the stock market. They ar
Recently, my public television station did a documentary on The Women’s Liberation Movement and having been one of those gals, it was a treat to relive history. Some of the clips left me wanting to stand up and shout, “Right on!” Nice to know the old juices can still flow. Nonet
Richard Cohen in The Washington Post offered a short rant on the cheapening of the word love in our culture. We have become a nation of phonies. We love everyone. We don’t merely like them or respect them or hold them in some esteem. We love them.” (“Viewpoint,” by Richard Coh
Yesterday was one of those days I could have erased from the calendar and been happy. Everything and anything mechanical, from my computer, to my telephone, even my toaster, went wrong. What’s more, I lost a tooth filling and kept getting calls that were wrong numbers. Just an ordin
Recently, I remembered that we’d passed the tenth anniversary of the Iraq war. I was reminded by an open letter that appeared in Harper’s magazine, written by Andrew J. Bacevich to, Paul Wolfowitz, one of the war’s chief architects. (“A Letter to Paul Wolfowitz” by Andrew J.
I presume many people have a bucket list of accomplishments they’d like to achieve before parting from this life. I have 4 items on mine, all related to writing and I work toward attaining them every day. If I do succeed with any one of them, I hope I have the wit to find other goal